786 NATURAL SCIENCE. dec. 



With regard to what may be termed the second part of the book, 

 nothing but praise can be awarded. The physical structure of Egypt 

 in connection with the residence of the patriarchs and of Israel in that 

 country is most carefully drawn out and illustrated by maps and 

 figures. Palestine is treated in the same painstaking fashion. The 

 topography of the Exodus, as portrayed by the author's own as well 

 as by the most modern researches of other travellers, is fully detailed. 

 Appendixes and an index enable the reader to find what he wants at 

 once. Whatever he may think of Sir W. Dawson's geological con- 

 clusions and his views on palseocosmic man, he will entertain but one 

 opinion on the industry, the acuteness, and, above all, the conscien- 

 tiousness of Sir W. Dawson. This is only what his previous publica- 

 tions would lead all to expect. 



CuRiosiTES DE l'Histoire Naturelle. By Henry de Varigny. Small 8vo. 

 Pp.413. Paris: n.d. [1892]. Price 3fr. 50c. 



This work may be described as a kind of scientific " Half-hours with 

 the best Authors." The book mainly consists of a series of excerpts 

 from different writers, and these not always, it may be observed, very 

 well-known writers. With the names of Darwin, Wallace, Paul Bert, 

 de Saussure, and M. de Varigny himself, there are a number of others 

 which it would be invidious to mention, but whose dicta do not 

 exactly carry weight. 



The author explains in his preface that his book is intended for 

 young readers, and that it is furthermore intended to amuse as well 

 as to instruct ; it might, therefore, have been wise to correct several 

 fables which are included, such as the old story about the Hydra 

 turning itself inside out and living just as happily in the reversed 

 condition.^ On the whole, however, we think this a decidedly 

 interesting little book. We do not pretend to have read it through ; 

 it is not a book to read studiously, but to pick up for an odd half-hour> 

 which odd half-hour will be by no means unpleasantly spent. 



F. E. B. 



Experimental Evolution. By Henry de Varigny, D.Sc. London: Macmillan 

 and Co., 1892, Nature Series. Price 5s. 



This volume contains the lectures given by Dr. de Varigny, in 1891, 

 at Professor Patrick Geddes' fascinating Edinburgh Summer School 

 of Science and Art. If in his English the author needed much of 

 the assistance from Professor Geddes and Mr. J. A. Thomson he 

 so modestly acknowledges, he could have been advised by none 

 better, and the book is pleasantly and clearly written. 



The first lecture gives a general account of evolution, with an 

 avowed list to French contribution. At the end of the lecture the 

 case for experimental evolution is stated. In the second and third 

 lectures variation in nature, and in the fourth, variation under 

 domestication, are considered as the groups of fact upon which 

 experimental evolution must be based. In the last lecture, the 

 author explains that change of environment, use and disuse, natural,, 

 sexual and physiological selection must be the methods of enquiry ; 

 that the enquiry will be difficult and prolonged, and will raise 

 many side issues of interest. 



This is all well-meaning, and the amiable author maybe justified 

 of his book if he stimulates readers to take an interest in natural 



1 See Natural Science, vol. i., p. 86. 



